Method of associating properties or fields of graphical objects with each other for efficient composition of documents

ABSTRACT

An automated method is provided for preparing a document for editing. The document includes a first graphical object and at least one variable field or property in a second graphical object that is associated with a property of the first graphical object. The first graphical object has a plurality of properties. A user interface display screen is provided that allows a user to design a document that includes a plurality of graphical objects. Then, a document is created on the user interface display screen. A first graphical object and a second graphical object are added to the document. At least one variable field or property in the second graphical object is identified. The identified field or property in the second graphical object is associated with a property of the first graphical object. In this manner, a document is prepared for editing.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/417,484 filed Apr. 2, 2009, the entire disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/041,846 filed Apr. 2, 2008.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND AUTHORIZATION

Portions of the documentation in this patent document contain materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rightswhatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is well-known to use graphical objects within an electronic document.The object may cause text and/or images to appear in the electronicdocument at a user-defined location. Such graphical objects may includevariable fields or properties. It is desirable in certain situations toallow the variable fields or properties of such graphical objects tobecome associated with each other. The present invention fulfills such aneed.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one preferred embodiment, a computer-implemented method is providedfor preparing a document for editing. The document includes a firstgraphical object and at least one variable field or property in a secondgraphical object that is associated with a property of the firstgraphical object. The first graphical object has a plurality ofproperties. A user interface display screen is provided that allows auser to design a document that includes a plurality of graphicalobjects. Then, a document is created on the user interface displayscreen. A first graphical object and a second graphical object are addedto the document. At least one variable field or property in the secondgraphical object is identified. The identified field or property in thesecond graphical object is associated with a property of the firstgraphical object. In this manner, a document is prepared for editing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing summary as well as the following detailed description ofpreferred embodiments of the invention, will be better understood whenread in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose ofillustrating the invention, the drawings show presently preferredembodiments. However, the invention is not limited to the precisearrangements and instrumentalities shown. In the drawings:

FIGS. 1-26 are user interface display screens in accordance withpreferred embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 27 is a schematic diagram of a hardware configuration in accordancewith one preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Certain terminology is used herein for convenience only and is not to betaken as a limitation on the present invention.

This patent application includes an Appendix having a file namedappendix10379-30U2.txt, created on Apr. 14, 2009, and having a size of1,435,168 bytes. The Appendix is incorporated by reference into thepresent patent application. One preferred embodiment of the presentinvention is implemented via the source code in the Appendix. TheAppendix is subject to the “Copyright Notice and Authorization” statedabove.

The present invention is described in the context of a web-basedcommercial implementation called Improv™ marketed by Colorquick, L.L.C,Pennsauken, N.J. Improv is a document composition application.

In FIG. 1, the user logs into the secure website.

FIGS. 2-5B show how to select and associate data with images in thedigital asset library.

FIG. 2 shows the default navigation page after the user logs into thesite. Clicking on the Digital Assets Tab in FIG. 2 moves the user intothe Digital Asset Management portion of the site, as shown in FIG. 3.FIG. 3 shows how a user may browse their uploaded assets and viewdetails of an asset by clicking on a link. In FIG. 3, the category beingbrowsed is “Images.” Navigation buttons (e.g., Print, magSend) can beused to browse specific categories of assets. FIG. 4 shows a userviewing the details of an asset. The asset shown in FIG. 4 is a pictureof a sunflower. By clicking the “Edit Data” button in FIG. 4, the screenshown in FIGS. 5A and 5B appears. (FIG. 5A appended with picture 5Bdepicts a single webpage.) FIGS. 5A and 5B shows a screen that allowsfor editing of data associated with the asset.

The text entered in FIGS. 5A and 5B is put into different fields. Savingthese values associates this text with the digital asset (here, apicture of the Sunflower) in specific fields. This process is repeatedfor any digital asset, in this case, a photograph that has associatedtext, pricing or other printable data.

FIGS. 6-17 show selecting and editing a pre-made template, and also showvarious relevant features of the template. Editing includes replacingimages in the template and changing the associated data of an image thatis being rendered in the composition.

In FIG. 6, the user is browsing Template assets. FIG. 7 shows thedetails for a specific asset (the one in the bottom left corner of FIG.6) and an “Edit Improv” button which allows the user to edit thecurrently viewed template. Clicking this button launches the Improvapplication (a document composition environment) and loads the documentwith the two flowers, as shown in FIG. 8.

In FIG. 9, the user has selected text in the text box under the leftflower image. The “variable assignment box” shows the variable that isassociated with the selected text. In FIG. 9, the first index of theaforementioned text box is selected and this index is the beginning of avariable field associated with the property “ImageBox1.Disclaimer”. Thevalue of Imagebox1.Disclaimer is “Sunflowers not guaranteed to liveforever.” To summarize, the designer of this template has assigned thevalue of a variable field in the textbox to be set to data that isassociated with the image that happens to be in ImageBox1. In this case,that image is a picture of a sunflower.

FIG. 10 shows the user browsing their images from their digital assetlibrary in the panel to the right after the user has clicked the “BrowseDigital Assets” button. FIGS. 11A and 11B show a sunflower being draggedonto the live page by the user and placed in (dropped onto) ImageBox1.In this manner, the graphical object is linked to the digital asset.

FIG. 12 shows the new asset placed in ImageBox1. The values of thevariable fields in the text boxes above and below the Daisy image assethave been replaced automatically with values associated with the Daisyimage asset. The only immediate user action which caused the values ofthese text boxes to be updated was dragging the image into an Image Box,thus creating a new version of the document. In FIGS. 13 and 14, the tworespective text boxes have been highlighted to show the text associatedwith the Fields “Headline” and “Disclaimer” of ImageBox1.

FIGS. 15-17 show how a variable field in a text box can be associatedwith a different property of an Image Box. FIG. 15 shows a text box withthe entirety of its only variable field identified and selected. In FIG.16 the variable assigned to the variable field of the text box ischanged from “Disclaimer” to “MainText”, and the text in the associatedtextbox changed accordingly. FIG. 17 shows the text box expanded to showall of the imported text.

FIGS. 18-23 show how to set up and edit a new document or template inaccordance with this embodiment.

FIG. 18 shows a new blank document.

This is what the web site loads when an authorized user clicks on the“Create a new Template” button from FIG. 6. FIG. 19 shows a new Text Boxbeing drawn. FIG. 20 shows a second text box, and also shows that animage box has been added to the document. These were added in a similarmanner as the text box in FIG. 19. The text that was typed into thefirst text box has also been selected.

FIG. 21 shows an open restrictions panel. This can be used to identifyavailable properties of created objects. By cutting and pasting, or bytyping, a variable is assigned to the selected text (Selection made inFIG. 20) in the same manner as a variable was assigned in FIG. 16. Inthis case, the Imagebox1 Headline was assigned to a new variable fieldin the first (top) text box, while Imagebox1.MainText was assigned to anew variable field in the second (lower) text box.

FIG. 22 shows the result of that assignment after the daisy image hasbeen placed in the image box. FIG. 23 shows the result after the pinkrose image was placed in the image box.

FIGS. 24-26 show how associated data can be referenced indirectly. FIG.24 shows another configuration of the page to associate data with anasset. In FIG. 24, the “List” property of the associated data isassociated with a list that is depicted in FIG. 25. FIG. 26 shows adocument with a selected text box. In the text box, the highlighted textis associated with the first “Description” from the list that isreferenced in the “List” property of the associated data. The exactreference to the value in the list is“ImageBox1.List<col:[Description]><abs:0>” meaning that the applicationretrieves the first row (abs stands for absolute and the rows are0-indexed) and the column (col) “Description” from the List associatedwith the image contained in ImageBox1.

In one preferred embodiment, the populated text in the text box istreated as a locked text field which the user may not edit. In analternative embodiment, the populated text in a text box can be editableby the user, depending on the security settings. In either case, thepopulated text did not have to be typed by the user when composing thisdocument.

FIG. 27 shows a self-explanatory hardware configuration for onepreferred embodiment of the present invention.

Included in the Appendix is sample source code from the clientapplication shown in FIGS. 8-23 and 26, and server-side code thatinteracts with the aforementioned client application. The followinginformation is provided to assist in an understanding of the samplesource code:

a) The client-side application is a document composition applicationcreated with the Adobe® Flex™2.0.1 framework and compiler. The serverside code was implemented using ASP.NET and Weborb 3.3.

b) Calls to server-side methods retrieve assets (e.g., images, datalists, templates) which are identified by an integer id. Assetcollections (list of images), which is a list of all available assets ofa given type, may also be retrieved. Lastly, documents may be receivedas templates identified by an integer, or job pages identified by a pairof integers.

c) Multiple files are included in the Appendix. Start of files aremarked with “FILE START:” followed by the relative file path. The end offiles are marked with “FILE END:” followed by the relative file path.These start and end lines are not part of compilable code. XML and XMLlist snippets are headed by appropriate comments. The syntax of thesource code identifies what language the code is written in and thus howthe code may be compiled and executed. For further detail, “.as” and“.mxml” files are client-side Adobe Flex files and “.cs” files are c#files server-side files.

d) The following additional information is provided to assist in thecompiling of the client side code provided in the Appendix:

-   -   i) Files in the mx.graphics packages and its sub-packages are        not included in the Appendix. However, these files are only used        to create graphical previews of objects and documents, and thus        are not required for implementing the present invention.    -   ii) The class “OpenNumericStepper” was omitted from the        Appendix. This class is a derivative of the class NumericStepper        from the Flex 2.0.1 framework. To recreate this class, the        non-public properties and methods are changed to public        properties and methods.    -   iii) Artwork to be embedded in the application (e.g., icons) is        not included. When compiling the code, replacement artwork        should be provided as necessary.    -   iv) Font files are not included. This application uses “embedded        fonts” loaded from external Adobe Flash® files, but could be        modified to use “device fonts” without changing the material        functionality of the application.    -   v) The uri of some locations have been redacted. The vast        majority of the functionality at these locations is irrelevant        to the functioning of this source code and can be ignored or        coded around. Material functionality located at these locations        is explicitly addressed below.

e) The following is a discussion of the relevant server-side code:

-   -   i) The asp pages, referenced in the code as “imageDownloadPage”        and “DAMThumbnailImagePage”, are passed an asset number for an        asset of type image. These pages return the asset image or        thumbnail of the asset image, respectively.    -   ii) Sample remoting code using WebORB is provided, including the        List Provider MailingListProvider. MailingListProvider is        included in the Appendix as a representative example of other        List Providers that allow for the retrieval of list assets from        the server to the client. The data serialization is the standard        serialization done by WebORB.    -   iii) The web service method “getlmage” returns data for the        image with the id that was passed to the method. An example of        this data format is included in the Appendix.    -   iv) The web service method “getDAMImages” returns a list of data        for all image assets in the form of a list of xml. An example of        this data format is included in the Appendix.    -   v) The web service method “getDocument” is passed a template id,        a job id and a page id. If the template id is not 0, then the        template with that id is returned. Otherwise, the page of the        job of the respectively passed ids is returned. In either event,        a document is returned in xml format. An example document is        included in the Appendix.    -   vi) The web service method “saveDocument” is passed a document        in xml format and an id. The document format is the same as the        document format referred to in section v. A Boolean value and        preview image are also passed, as seen in the client-side code        in the Appendix. These items are not relevant to the        functionality of the preferred embodiments and thus are not        further discussed. If the document is a template, the template        id is passed as the id. Otherwise, the job number and the page        number separated by a comma is passed.    -   vii) Any GUIDs passed to a web method, as seen in the        client-side code in the Appendix, are not relevant to the        functionality of the preferred embodiments and thus are not        further discussed.

The text boxes and image boxes described above are graphical objects.Other types of graphical objects, such as video and interactive content,are within the scope of the present invention. For example, instead ofdragging and dropping an image into an image box, video (i.e., a firstgraphical object) may be dragged and dropped into a video box that hasconventional video control buttons. A second graphical object, which maybe text, video or interactive content, would then be processed in thesame manner as described above with respect to text boxes.

In another preferred embodiment, the first graphical object and thesecond graphical object are the same graphical object.

One preferred embodiment of the present invention is implemented via thesource code in the accompanying Appendix. However, the scope of thepresent invention is not limited to this particular implementation ofthe invention.

Figures include icons created by Mark James from“http://WorldWideWeb.famfamfam.com/lab/silk/” licensed under theCreative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

FIGS. 5A, 16, 17, 22-24, 26 include excerpts licensed under the GNU FreeDocumentation License (http://WorldWideWeb.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellis_perennis,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower, andhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose.

The present invention may be implemented with any combination ofhardware and software. If implemented as a computer-implementedapparatus, the present invention is implemented using means forperforming all of the steps and functions described above.

The present invention can be included in an article of manufacture(e.g., one or more computer program products) having, for instance,computer useable media. The media has embodied therein, for instance,computer readable program code means for providing and facilitating themechanisms of the present invention. The article of manufacture can beincluded as part of a computer system or sold separately.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes could bemade to the embodiments described above without departing from the broadinventive concept thereof. It is understood, therefore, that thisinvention is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but itis intended to cover modifications within the spirit and scope of thepresent invention.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and describedwith reference to one preferred embodiment thereof, it will beunderstood by those skilled in the art that various alterations in formand detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit andscope of the present invention.

1. An automated method of preparing a document for editing, the documentincluding a first graphical object and at least one variable field orproperty in a second graphical object that is associated with a propertyof the first graphical object, the first graphical object having aplurality of properties; the method comprising: (a) providing a userinterface display screen that allows a user to design a document thatincludes a plurality of graphical objects; (b) creating a document onthe user interface display screen; (c) adding a first graphical objectand a second graphical object to the document; (d) identifying at leastone variable field or property in the second graphical object; and (e)associating the identified field or property in the second graphicalobject with a property of the first graphical object, wherein a documentis prepared for editing by performing steps (a)-(e).
 2. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the editing is versioning.
 3. The method of claim 1further comprising: (f) saving the document for subsequent use as adocument or a document template.
 4. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising: (f) selecting a digital asset via a user interface displayscreen; (g) linking the digital asset to a first graphical object; (h)populating the first graphical object with the digital asset; (i)populating properties of the first graphical object with editablerelated data of the digital asset; and (j) automatically setting the atleast one variable field or property in the second graphical objectusing the value of the associated property from the first graphicalobject.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the first graphical object isan image box or a text box.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the secondgraphical object is an image box or a text box.
 7. The method of claim 1wherein the first graphical object and the second graphical object arethe same graphical object.
 8. An automated method of editing a document,the document including a first graphical object and at least onevariable field or property in a second graphical object that isassociated with a property of the first graphical object, the firstgraphical object having a plurality of properties, the document beingcreated using a library of digital assets, each of the digital assetsincluding editable related data; the method comprising: (a) providingthe document in a document composition environment; (b) selecting adigital asset from the library via a user interface display screen; (c)linking the digital asset to a first graphical object; (d) populatingthe first graphical object with the digital asset; (e) populatingproperties of the first graphical object with editable related data ofthe digital asset; and (f) automatically setting the at least onevariable field or property in the second graphical object using a valueof the associated property from the first graphical object, wherein thedocument is edited as a result of performing steps (a)-(f).
 9. Themethod of claim 8 wherein step (a) is performed by selecting a documenttemplate from a set of previously defined document templates.
 10. Themethod of claim 8 wherein step (a) is performed by selecting a documentfrom a set of previously defined documents.
 11. The method of claim 8wherein the first graphical object is an image box or a text box. 12.The method of claim 8 wherein the second graphical object is an imagebox or a text box.
 13. The method of claim 8 wherein the first graphicalobject and the second graphical object are the same graphical object.14. The method of claim 1 wherein the graphical object association is adirect object to object association.
 15. The method of claim 8 whereinthe graphical object association is a direct object to objectassociation.